Grateful for the fog (10 and 11)

It was supposed to be beautiful and sunny this morning but we were socked in, which actually allowed me to be pretty productive. Two more short chapters down, numbers 10 and 11 (so I actually made my three-per-week goal):

• His Master's Voice -- about capturing the "voice" of the speaker. This was a tough one, because capturing someone's speech patterns, tone, rhythm, syntax, word choice, etc., has always come pretty naturally to me. I had to think hard about what specific steps a person who doesn't have that natural ability might take.

• Blocked? Get Over It -- this one's been done to death, but I figure it bears repeating: there's no such thing as writer's block. I may dump it in the end, but right now it's less than 200 words anyway. I envision the "regular" chapters, which are already pretty short as it is, being interrupted occasionally with these extremely short, one-page mini-chapters.

As I write these, I keep thinking about an approach recommended by an old friend/colleague. She's had her own book published by Simon & Schuster, but she's been talking up the whole online/crowdsourcing thing. Just putting up chapters, inviting debate, collecting comments and, I presume, revising and rewriting.

It sounds interesting, though finding a large enough following of interested people might be difficult. Certainly not as difficult as finding a publisher, though. There are some sites I need to check out. Just a few chapters to get under my belt first.